Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.")

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you through the Aero-News Network.

Aero-Tips 09.16.06

I was providing instruction in a Beech Baron twin. We had climbed well above a broken-to-overcast layer and were practicing maneuvers in the clear, blue sky above. My student, preparing for his commercial-multiengine checkride, was setting up for a VMC demonstration -- a maneuver showing how control authority drops with a reduction in airspeed, until it reaches the point a multiengine airplane can no longer maintain directional control with one engine inoperative. Key skills in the VMC demo are proper heading control and the correct recovery.

With the left ("critical") engine simulated "dead" and power up on the right, I mentioned to my student that, in the extremely unlikely event the right engine would fail for real at this point that he would have to recover right away to avoid a dangerous single-engine stall. Sure enough, seconds later the right engine did die... and my student recovered wonderfully.

"How's you do that?" he asked, certain I'd somehow caused the right engine to die. To his credit, though, my student brought the left engine out of zero thrust (remember, we're stuck on top of a layer of instrument conditions); once trimmed for single-engine flight the other way he quickly processed the memory items for engine troubleshooting. One step was to turn on the auxiliary ("boost") pump -- and the fuel-injected Continental engine roared back to life.

He snapped the trim controls (pitch, rudder and aileron) back to a normal, two-engine configuration, then reached up and TURNED OFF THE BOOST PUMP. The engine immediately died. And once again my student recovered swiftly and correctly, and once more he turned the boost pump on.

Faced with a failed engine-driven fuel pump, I called the training mission complete, and we got an IFR clearance to descend into nearby Wichita. Inbound on the VOR approach my student suddenly (and without warning) reached up and TURNED OFF the right boost pump, causing the engine to quit once more. I quickly leaned over and turned it back on before he had a chance to trim off the pressures, but he was well on his way.

Breaking out and entering downwind for landing, he once again jerked his hand up and TURNED OFF THE BOOST PUMP. I tried to beat him to the switch but didn't quite make it; I did snap it on right away, before the engine even completely sputtered out of fuel. But I'd learned my lesson; when he again reached up on short final to turn off the boost pump I was guarding the switch with my hand.

We debriefed, and I learned that he had flown most of his multiengine time in a Piper Apache, which calls for boost pumps to be OFF after engine restarts, and ON for approaches and for landings. When first checking out in his Baron my student learned the boost pumps should be OFF for approaches and landings, and had programmed his response to turn the boost pump OFF as part of a mental checklist for various phases of flight. He was so indoctrinated he didn't even consider there are times you NEED the boost pump on, when the engine-drive pump had died. He was so fast acting on his knowledge that he didn't take the time to consider unusual circumstances.

The impulsive pilot

The FAA calls impulsivity an attitude to do something, anything, quickly, and to do the first thing that comes to mind. An important and positive trait for a well-trained pilot in the early stages of an emergency, impulsivity can be hazardous in most cases, when time exists to think before acting and to perform things correctly.

Aero-tip of the day: Manage impulsivity-be ready to react quickly in the rare case when it's necessary, but take your time and correctly respond to status when you have time.

FMI: Aero-Tips